Although "organic" is a dominant theme, only two percent of the area is actually certified as "organic or "biodynamic". Which, to a small extent at least, is also due to the fact that some people are completely indifferent to the official seal. All the lifestyle winegrowers for whom viticulture is a nice hobby - or who at least started out as hobby winegrowers - need not worry much about marketing and labels. Take Newton Vineyards, for example: Su Hua Newton, a native Chinese, ex-Chanel mannequin and PhD in psychology and philosophy, is one of these career changers. In 1983, she brought out her first "Chardonnay unfiltered", a sensation. Year after year, the wine receives the highest ratings, it tastes fantastic and ages, no: matures beautifully. There is nothing about organic on the label, but for Su Hua it goes without saying that she makes her wine without tricks and without the little chemical helpers. One hundred percent organic? More like two hundred per cent! It's logical: the chemicals in the vineyard are there to safeguard the yields, to prevent losses due to vine diseases. Why should someone who is looking for adventure in the vineyard use chemicals to protect himself?
Shock for France: Californian Chardonnay beats best Burgundy
Grgich is not someone who pursues winemaking merely as an adventure. For him, it was always hard work that he did for others. In the 1970s, the oenologist worked at
Château Montelena in
Napa Valley and achieved fame and renown in the wine world when his
Chardonnay outperformed the famous white Burgundies in the 1976 California-France comparative tasting in Paris. In his own vineyard,
Grgich Hills Vineyards, where daughter Violet is gradually taking over the reins, he naturally also produces class wines. With an invisible additional quality: they are all produced according to the strict rules of biodynamics.
The Guru's son
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Jason Dolan
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Paul Dolan, once
president of
Fetzer and responsible for the development of the organic
brand Bonterra, has been considered the guru of biodynamic cultivation for decades. His son Jason Dolan does things a bit smaller. Instead of being responsible for the wine production from the grape to the finished beverage in a giant company or even in his own small winery, he has picked out a production area: Jason is a grape grower. In our country, someone who doesn't
crush and ferment his grapes himself, but "only" supplies the raw material to others, doesn't count for much. It is also not particularly satisfying for one's vanity if one's own grapes disappear completely anonymously into the big vat of a cooperative or another vintner. Jason Dolan is remarkably unpretentious: he derives his satisfaction from experimenting in the vineyard and thus perfecting biodynamic grape cultivation. His "co-workers" include useful insects as well as chickens and sheep, which do vineyard maintenance in their own way.
Globalisation at its best
Robert
Mondavi, on the other hand, turned the big wheel. He had already
met Baron Philippe de Rothschild of
Château Mouton-Rothschild years before the "Paris verdict", which was scandalous from the point of view of
French winemakers. But it was not until two years after the Californian
triumph that the two winery bosses came together for a joint venture: While other
Bordeaux winemakers and their battered egos were still in a sulk,
Rothschild took a step forward and, together with Robert
Mondavi, founded the
first intercontinental winery in Napa Valley: Opus One. The goal: to produce a top-class Californian wine in the
Bordelais style. They succeeded. Opus One, a blend of
Cabernet Sauvignon with a little
Merlot,
Cabernet Franc,
Malbec and Petit
Verdot, is one of the
most sought-after wines in the world and is priced at more than two hundred euros a bottle.
For Robert
Mondavi, son of Italian immigrants, who already worked in his parents' winery in the 1930s, this is the crowning achievement of his winemaking career. What California has today in terms of reputation, it owes to a large extent to this go-getting pioneer, who founded his own winery in Oakville in the mid-sixties. The aim was to produce wine of a quality that was previously unknown in California - a quality that he had become acquainted with in Bordeaux. It was clear that someone like
Mondavi, who was more innovative than anyone else, was also leading the way in terms of environmental awareness and was committed to sustainable viticulture.
The wine for tough guys
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"No wimpy wines" - the motto of Joel Petterson
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The fact that Californian wine tends to be fruity and jammy rather than subtle and elegant is not just a nasty prejudice. The winemakers who are out to make finesse-rich, multi-layered "European-style" wines (as the winemakers themselves call them) form a small, fine upper class. People like the German-born Schug, whose
Pinot noir would also do
France credit. Like Coppola, from whose
Rubicon Estate comes a Viognier-Marsanne
cuvée that even a South Frenchman would be proud of. Or Cathy Corison with her complex, polished Cabernets. They all rely on subtlety instead of force. Nevertheless, even at the top end of the quality pyramid, there are some powerful wines - deliberately designed as such. Joel Peterson from the
Ravenswood winery has devoted himself entirely to
Zinfandel and says that it is a wine for guys: "Not a weak wine - and nothing for wimps." In a completely natural way, the powerful red reaches alcohol levels of sixteen percent and is also otherwise more hearty than distinguished. After the winemakers from Napa and Co. have proven to themselves and the world that they can produce
Bordeaux blends that are just as good as the very best in their home country of
Bordeaux, they can now also devote themselves to this
most Californian of all grape varieties in a relaxed manner. Peterson calls his cultivation method not "organic" but "archaic". If that doesn't amount to the same thing...
To the first part: On the eco-trip
You can order a sample issue of "Divino" here.
